36 Quotes by Vance Arnold

We've got everybody healthy and we used a lot of guys today. We've got 11 or 12 guys swinging the bats well right now but our pitching is going to have to carry us from here on out. But we feel like we're in good shape for conference and I feel like we're as good as anybody in the state right now.

We accomplished what we needed to. We're really swinging the bats right now and a lot of kids had unselfish at-bats when the game was still tight. We had some walks and a couple of kids got hit and then the big boys knock them in. We just don't have an easy out in the lineup.

We really hit the ball early. But when bad things have happened to us, we swing at the wrong pitch on the wrong count and we get frustrated at the plate.

We ran ourselves out and took the bats out of some hands in a few innings. We made outs at bases we shouldn't have, trying to be too daring. If we would have played a little smarter we could have ended the game in five and saved some pitching. We wanted to take some chances going to second not third and home and we made some obvious misreads.

If anyone has earned this opportunity it's Grant. Because he was real good when he was young and then kind of disappeared and he's battled back and he's come a million miles. Our expectations weren't real high coming into the season but he's never turned the ball down and the defense loves him because he throws strikes and gets ground balls and double plays.

From the outfield to the infield, we can pretty much throw a ball and get it anywhere pretty quickly. And frankly, we were a little surprised that our defense has turned out to be so strong, but we feel really good about it right now.

We talked after losing the first game that positive people make positive things happen. We forgot about what happened in that first game and the kids battled in the second game. We told the guys to just swing the bats and be aggressive and they came through.

We made some mistakes that we had not made in the first five games. That contributed to the situation. We knew anything could happen the other night at Springdale because we've got several guys without much varsity experience on the AAAAA level. But I think we learned from it and we'll be fine.

Just so many times before, we've had a lead in the bottom of the seventh and then not come away with the win. I mean, holy cow, their pinch hitter comes up with two outs and two strikes and slaps an outside fastball by the second baseman, and you go holy cow again. I mean, you think, what do we have to do to win?